Date: 18 October 2007 10:09 am (UTC)
(Here via [livejournal.com profile] whileaway)

I'm not sure it would be that easy to pin down whether early novels were written 'for men' or 'for women': both men and women sobbed over Richardson* or thought it was all a bit silly, according to taste. Sterne's novels were very popular among women; both Henry Fielding and Eliza Haywood wrote parodies of Pamela. I'm not sure offhand who read Defoe - he was (iirc) aiming at a less refined market in any case - but I'd be surprised if he was read exclusively by either sex.

*I read an article recently which quoted an anonymous letter written to Richardson protesting at his announcement that Clarissa would die at the end of the novel: "I should read the account of [Clarissa's] death with as much Anguish of Mind, as I should feel at the Loss of my dearest Friend. I know a great many Gentlemen that are of my Mind [and fewer of them will buy your book if they know they're going to spend weeks crying over it]." (Rough paraphrase mine)
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